Laughing Ourselves to Life
Sunday, March 7, 2004
READING
“Laughing Ourselves to Life”
by Cindy Kuzma
Many of the words that we associate
with laughter have the light, airy feel of an overripe dandelion. Titter.
Teehee. Chortle. Lampoon. Spoof.
But deep down,
sidesplitting fun is – well, it’s about stress.
You hear the great joke
about the Buddhist buying a hot dog (“Make me one with everything.”), or you
watch your mortal enemy get drenched with rainwater from a passing bus, or your
partner tickles you armpit. Almost instantly, your body begins to mimic the
flight-or-fight response. Adrenaline surge to the furthest reaches of you
circulatory system. Your blood pressure skyrockets and metabolism races.
But a truly astonishing
thing happens when the stressor turns out to be funny. Your whole nervous
system does an about-face, a highwire somersault. Instead of preparing you to
run for your life, you legs, back, and abdominal muscles begin to spasm and
contract, with such force that each passing minute you may as well have spent
on a rowing machine. Your face becomes flushed with the blood flow – not an unusual
response to anxiety. But then at least fifteen facial muscles synchronize and
force a smile. Spasms in the diaphragm – occurring every 210 milliseconds for
about 75 milliseconds each – push air out through your voice box and throat.
Your epiglottis begins to shut over your larynx, you gasp and make a guttural
“huh-huh-huh” sound. If you keep at it long enough, this bizarre behavior can
activate your tear ducts, loosen the muscles that control your bladder, and
lead you down the yellow brick road to hyperventilation.
Welcome to the wonderful
world of gelotology. Or, as we usually call it, the study of laughter.
We seldom stop to think
about it, we can’t fake it, and we aren’t sure why we started it in the first
place. But at some point in our long march from the apes, laughter became
essential to who we are as conscious beings. It’s now integral to the manic,
joyous celebrations and humiliating embarrassments of our lives – showcasing
our approval and scorn, including and excluding our associates of choice,
boldly signaling our attitude toward life itself. As the forefather of human
ethology, Irenaus Eibl-Eibesfeldt, found when he traveled the world with a
hidden “candid” camera that allowed him to surreptitiously record behavior,
people from every culture laugh. It’s a universal signal. (Science &
Spirit, July/August, 2003. p. 30.)
SERMON
A convict on Death Row,
the night before his scheduled execution, was visited by the warden. The
warden, in talking with the condemned man, said, "Usually at this point,
persons in your situation find great comfort in talking to a member of the
clergy. With that in mind, would you like us to send the prison chaplain over
for a visit?"
The convict replied,
"Well, warden, I have to tell you—I was raised a Unitarian Universalist."
The warden then said,
"Well, then, would you like to talk to an English professor?"
Instantly, we laugh! Unless we find
something offensive about the idea of a UU on death row. I know that there have
been.
Yes, we laugh! We see humor in the image of Unitarian
Universalists who would be more comfortable with an English professor than
clergy. The description of the physiological process (as in this morning’s
reading) may seem a bit dry, but we may not be, if we truly find something
funny. I sometimes laugh until my eyes are dripping. And I usually feel the
better for it, though I once had a college roommate who could make me laugh so
hard I had to crawl from our room to get my breath.
I like to take a Sunday
around this time of year when the weather has been too wet for too long, the
air far colder than is comfortable, and my spirits are sagging to stop and
inject a bit of humor into our collective congregational life. I am convinced
that humor is good for the body, good for the mind, and good for the spirit.
So, here we go. . .
Body
What two things do UUs
and Dracula have in common?
They both have origins in
Translyvania and they both shy away from the cross.
Humor and laughter are
clearly beneficial to the body, even aiding healing. Norman Cousins, editor and
author of Anatomy of an Illness as Perceived by the Patient, says,
“Laughter is inner jogging.” He dosed himself with at least 30 minutes of funny
movies each day to help cure himself of ankylosing spondylitis, a
life-threatening inflammatory spinal condition (S&S, p. 34.). He also
followed his doctor’s medical guidance and took megadoses of vitamin C, but
laughter was very important to him in his healing.
Lee Berk at Loma Linda University
has published several studies showing that laughing decreases the level of
stress hormones, increases the level of immunoglobin A – thought to protect
against some viruses – in the blood, and increases activated T lymphocytes,
which fight cancer and other harmful invaders. Even the anticipation of a
humorous event, Berk’s research has found, can cause changes in our
psychobiology.
Sounds like laughter and having fun
are truly good for us!
Did you know that there
is a kind of stress that is good for us? It is called eustress. After
body-rocking laughter, “there’s a wonderful interlude of relaxation.” (S&S,
p. 35.)
Blood pressure drops and muscles
loosen up. Frequent laughter, therefore, could theoretically reduce heart
disease, depression, and stress-related illnesses – and, not surprisingly, a
study by cardiologist Michael Miller and colleagues at the University of
Maryland has shown that those who recover fastest from heart disease laugh
more, though which is the cause and which the effect remain unclear. (Ibid.)
This is eustress in action. This is
humor healing the body.
Mind
While we still have a lot to learn
about the effects of laughter and humor on the body, we also see effects upon
our minds. Humor breaks open our rigid way of thinking, sometimes by reminding
us of them: eg.:
A group of UU church
school children were trying to determine the sex of a rabbit.
"There's only one
way to decide," said one child, "let's take a vote on it."
The democratic process may not
always give us the truth, but it is good to know that our children and youth
know its value.
Laughter really can help
our minds. As noted earlier, it can help with depression, but it can also
provide a simple calming effect. As Cindu Kuza observes:
Laughter-related
eustress is proving equally effective in calming our minds. When college
students watched an episode of Seinfeld before giving a speech, their
heart rates stayed lower. (Ibid.)
Humor helps bring and keep wholeness
of mind.
I genuinely believe that laughter
also opens up creativity by breaking the constraints of our rigid thinking. I
know that the meetings that I attend in which laughter and humor shine most
also have the most creative outcomes. I recall being trained as a Continuing
Education Representative for the ministers of this district back in 1986. The
trainers noticed that each group in which I was laughed heartily. They seemed
concerned that nothing was actually going on other than laughter. I decided to
stand up for humor and took them to each of the easels and showed, without a
doubt, that each group that was laughing so hard also had the most
brainstorming ideas of any group in the room. My Dad always said, “A group
without laughter isn’t being creative.”
Spirit
How many UUs does it
take to screw in a light bulb?
It's about 5 or 6, isn't
it? Whatever is a quorum for the church board meeting. Well, plus, of course a
couple members of the Building & Grounds Committee to actually get the
ladder & bulb and DO it....and of course the chair and vice-chair of the
committee to supervise....oh, they can't come Saturday? Well, how about Sunday
just before the service....oh, the choir's rehearsing? Oh, God! No, I'm not
praying! It's just an expression! What do you mean, I use too many careless
expressions!? If I gave the kind of wacky pulpit editorials you do....no I am
NOT appointing myself Censor of the Liturgy....Liturgy?? What's a liturgy?.....
From a spiritual perspective, humor
not only breaks rigid thinking, it also makes connections. It draws us together
as social beings and deepens the connections among us.
I don’t want to avoid
the reality that humor may be cruel or used as a weapon to separate people from
each other:
In his landmark book, Humanity,
Jonathan Glover describes the “cold joke” used by torturers to dehumanize
victims and empower perpetrators. “It adds emphasis to the difference between
‘us’ and ‘them’: We the interrogators are a group who share a joke at the
expense of you the victims.” He writes. (Ibid. p. 33.)
Playground humor that belittles may
connect some, but it does not serve the human spirit.
But in the best of times, something
remarkable happens when we laugh with others – it’s the social glue that
surpasses the limits of language. Think back to the times you laughed the
hardest, and undoubtedly you’ll remember emerging feeling as if you’d shared
something inexplicable wonderful with your companions. (Ibid.)
That is true spiritual
connection, not to be discounted as a point of joy and energy. Physician Mandan
Kataria believes that laughter is “a
simple spirituality, one that can bring health, joy, and inner peace, and
perhaps ripple beyond the self. (Ibid. p. 36.)
From Buddhist koans that
make us laugh to the astonishing humor of Muslim Nasruddin to the many and
varied Jewish stories to Christian humor to our own UU jokes, humor and
laughter open us to connections with the whole creation and widen our
perspective so we may find grace.
CONCLUSION
As some of you may
already have observed, I need humor in my life. The first congregation I served
had a very well known professional photographer who insisted upon taking my
“portrait” for the building, but he would not let me smile. I figured he had
some good artistic reason, but I was astounded to hear congregants say, “It
doesn’t look a thing like Gretchen. She isn’t laughing – or, at least, smiling!”
Humor is “relish for the
process” that connects us to all of creation, heals our stressed bodies, breaks
our narrow limits of thought, and lightens up our spirits. G. K. Chesterton
reminds us, “Angels fly because they take themselves lightly!” We could all do
this a bit more and benefit physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually,
with respect, responsibility, and relish for the process.
So Be It! Blessed Be!
CLOSING WORDS
A man was walking up the street,
when he passed by a Catholic Church. He noticed smoke pouring out of the
building. He ran inside, and yelled to the Priest, "Father, Father!! Your
Church is on Fire!" The Priest grabbed the pulpit Bible, and ran out.
A little farther up the
road, the man passed by a Jewish Synagogue. Smoke was pouring out of the
building. He ran inside. "Rabbi, Rabbi!! Your building is on fire!"
cried the man. The Rabbi grabbed the Torah, and ran out.
A little farther down,
the man came by a Unitarian Universalist Church. It, too, was on fire. The man
rushed inside. "Minister, Minister!! Your Church is on fire!" cried
the man. The minister grabbed the coffeepot and ran out.
Thus we bless our
sacrament of “coffee hour!”
CLOSING SONG
“Coffee,
Coffee, Coffee” by C.G. Raible
Coffee, coffee, coffee/Praise the
strength of coffee
Early in the morn we rise with
thoughts of only thee.
Served fresh or reheated, Dark by
thee defeated,
Brewed black by perk or drip or
instantly.
Though all else we scoff we Come to
church for coffee;
If we’re late to congregate, we come
in time for thee.
Coffee our one ritual, Drinking I
habitual,
Brewed black by perk or drip or
instantly.
Coffee the communion of our
Uni-Union,
Symbol of our sacred ground, our one
necessity.
Feel the holy power at our coffee
hour,
Brewed black by perk or drip or
instantly.